Approval given to bills aimed at reducing trash brought into Michigan

JOSH FAHLSING

Published 12:35 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

The Senate unanimously approved 10 bills in the large package, including one that would give more authority to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to enforce the tougher disposal standards.

The Democratic governor used her State of the State address in January to ask lawmakers to send her the bills, which are aimed at curbing the amount of foreign trash dumped in Michigan landfills.

A bill that would place a moratorium until Jan. 1, 2006, on the construction of new landfills was sent to the governor on a 34-3 vote with Democratic Sens. Mickey Switalski of Roseville, Mike Prusi of Ishpeming and Jim Barcia of Bay City voting against it.

Barcia did, however, support the other bills in the package.

Switalski said he doesnt like the bill because it would limit the supply of landfill space.

We shouldnt raise the cost to locals who suffered revenue sharing cuts in order to make it more expensive for the Canadians to landfill here. Well be penalizing ourselves if we do that, Switalski said.

Barcia pointed to the situation with Cove Landfill in Huron County. Earlier this year, the landfill was shut down by the DEQ. It was reopened after an agreement was reached between new owner Richfield Equities, LLC and the DEQ.

"If they cannot expand that landfill it might make it impossible for that operation to be profitable," Barcia said. "If we're going to continue to have effective and affordable trash services we may need to see an expansion of that landfill. To be on the safe side I voted against the bill. I thought it was a bit restrictive, but I supported all other bills in the package."

The moratorium bill also would require the DEQ to prepare a report on landfill capacity with recommendations for ways to create regional systems of solid waste planning.

This moratorium will provide us an opportunity to continue to examine our landfill use and our needs, said Sen. Bruce Patterson, a Canton Republican who introduced the bill. We can then make appropriate plans for future land use.

Legislation that would prohibit out-of-state trash from containing large amounts of items that Michigan residents arent allowed to throw away, such as carbonated drink cans, oil, batteries and tires, was returned to the House for its approval of changes made by the Senate.

* Allow the DEQ director to prohibit any waste shipment that poses a threat to the public or the environment.

* Create fines of up to $25,000 a day for violating certain disposal laws.

The package of bills represents a new way of limiting out-of-state trash.

A state law approved in the early 1990s that allowed counties to bar trash from other states or Canada was struck down in 1992 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said only Congress had the authority to regulate interstate commerce.

Barcia said beyond that argument, a potential problem could loom with the North American Free Trade Agreement. Canada, he said, could argue limiting the amount of trash it can export to the United States violates NAFTA.

"I think it's important we do all we can to make it as expensive as we can to dispose of their trash within the boundaries of Michigan," Barcia said, adding it isn't only Canadian trash filling Michigan landfills. "There are a lot of states, also, that prefer to export their trash rather than deal with it."

Barcia said if it gets expensive enough to ship trash to Michigan, Canada and other states may decide it makes more sense for them to deal with their trash at home.

Supporters of the bills said they will withstand a court challenge.

Deb Muchmore, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Waste Industries Association, said its difficult to tell how the bills will be implemented.

If you look at some of these bills, they call for things like no soft drink containers in the waste stream. Practically speaking, that is a difficult thing to achieve especially when you have visitors to our state who sometimes throw away beverage cans, she said.

A DEQ report released last month said Michigan accepted 43 percent more trash from Canada in the 2003 fiscal year than the year before mostly because the city of Toronto began shipping all of its trash to a Wayne County landfill after an Ontario landfill closed on Jan. 1, 2003.

Other states sending more than 1 million cubic yards of waste to Michigan were Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, according to the DEQ.

In all, the DEQ said Michigan landfills took in 62.6 million cubic yards of waste in 2003, up from 57.5 million the year before.